I know a lot of people who don't make New Years resolutions, and that's totally fine. You do your thing, I'll do mine. Me, I have about 12. Give or take. There are several little ones, such as keeping up with my project life, blog once a week (which is clearly going well....), and to read more books while watching less television. I love to read, so that one should be a no brainer. And I'm sure once I re-watch all 3 season of Veronica Mars to get ready for the movie coming out in March (yay!!), that resolution will be in full swing. There are also slightly more difficult ones on my New years to-do list, such as getting hubby to come to the gym with me several times a week, learning Italian, and writing a novel in 30 days (more about that here).
But not matter which camp you fall into with the New Years resolutions, it's my humble opinion that everyone could stand to do something new in the coming year. Don't make a single resolution, that's totally fine by me!! But there are ways to make the most out of your year without them. I have assembled a short list of 5 ways to knock the socks off of 2014. Since this list is forever long, I'm going to split it up. Ideas 1 and 2 are below, and 3-5 are in the next post. Enjoy!
1. Get Happy!!!! My happy is going to look a whole lot different from yours, and that's perfectly acceptable. Encouraged, even. How boring would life be if everyone was excited by the same thing? According to Gretchen Rubin, author of the Happiness Project and Happier at Home, the steps to gleaning the most happiness possible from an event are to:
- Anticipate the event
- Savor it as it unfolds
- Express your happiness as you're feeling it
- Recall the happy memory
Not too difficult, right? For example, Nick's birthday this year (the closest event I can think of off the top of my head!). We've been thinking about taking a little trip, so once we have the dates, I'm going to mark them on my calendar so I have a visual reminder to "anticipate the event".
In order to "savor it as it unfolds", my plan is to put our phones on silent, bring a 2 person board game or two, and maybe some......other things....to make Nick's birthday fun. Wink wink. I want to be totally present in each moment we get to experience together.
We have kind of a joke saying in our family; "This is fun guys. Isn't this fun? We're having fun, aren't we?" But really, if you're enjoying your time with someone, make sure they know. Make sure you say it out loud and remind yourself that this once-in-a-lifetime moment is pretty cool. I have a brother-in-law who is awesome at this, and I don't even know if he knows it. About a year after Nick and I got married, we were all in the parking lot of Waffle House at about 1:30 AM (cause that's just how we roll), and he randomly turned to me and said "I'm really glad you're in our family". Totally simple, but that was over 2 years ago and I still smile every time I think about it. People appreciate when you "express your happiness as it unfolds".
It's easy for me to "recall the happy memory", because my camera is never farther away than my purse or back pocket. Photos, scrapbooks, project life, facebook albums, that's what helps me remember all of the awesome things I've been blessed enough to take part in. Find what works for you and make it happen.
2. Let it go! Easier said than done, and no one is going to struggle with this more than me this year. But trust me peeps......it's totally worth it. Don't let something from year, months, even weeks ago steal a single second of 2014. It's not healthy, fun, or worth it to dwell on things that, more than likely, you can't control anyway! In the spirit of moving on and letting it go, that's all I have to say on this topic. :)
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